First and foremost is the realization that, while not all Germans are anti-Semitic, there is an anti-Semitic tendency within German culture that extends back to the time of Martin Luther. Germans are instinctively anti-Semitic in the same way that Americans are instinctively freedom-loving. Anti-Semitism has been and unfortunately remains the default ideology of the German people.
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By that rationale, you could say it's the default ideology of all of Europe, given how Jews were treated basically everywhere. Cultures and views move with the Zeitgeist.
I can't say I'm not pleased to see a variation on the usual anti-semitism that gets posted here. Of course no posts would be better still, but at least ragging on Germany is vaguely unusual.
First and foremost is the realization that, while not all Americans are anti-intellectual, there is an anti-intellectualist tendency within American culture that extends all the way back to the time of Edward Rutledge. Americans are instinctively education-hating in the same way that the Japanese are instinctively obsessed with cute little girls. Anti-intellectualism has been and unfortunately still remains the default ideology of the American people.
Makes just as much sense as what this guy says.
Please come to Germany and let us all punch you in the face.
@Thomas
"Americans are instinctively freedom-loving."
O.O??
By all accounts, most Americans only love freedom when it's their own... other people's freedom? Not so much...
@1416537: True, too often it's more like "privilege-loving". Authoritarians, it seems, don't just want freedom; they want exaltation and to be actively envied.
Hitler dumped his anti-semitism on a bemused German people, and had to work hard to make it prevail in everyday German life. It was up to Goebbels and his team to come up with slogans like "Judentum ist Verbrechertum" and "The Jews are our misfortune". When signs went up in German towns saying "Juden, hier sind Sie unerwünscht", many people were shocked, but they went along with it, because not following Nazi party policy was rather foolish if you valued your freedom.
Anti-Semitic tendency within German culture, and the rest of Europe, extends back to the Middle Ages- 6th or 7th century, if I had to guess. However, I never encountered it when I lived there.
"Americans are instinctively freedom-loving"
Yes because other nationalities just hate freedom.
One more thing Mr. Grim. Do you think you could define freedom?
I will say that they do not have the same attitude toward Jews that open-minded Americans do about minority faiths. I was a foreign exchange student there and had some discussions with my host family about the matter. While they didn't outright express antisemitism, they did say that they were "not Germans" (even those who had lived there for generations). This struck my American sensibilities as strange, as I consider any American citizen an American, regardless of color or creed.
Sorry Brendan, I assumed that because these slogans were a famous part of Nazi history, their meaning was well known. They mean "Jewry is crminality" and "Jews, you are not wanted here".
@Reynardine:
Which is why Jews were so assimilated into German culture that Hitler had to dedicate whole bureaus and special sorting machines to tracking them down. And by the way, he was an Austrian.
You know, I never thought about this before. As far as I know there weren’t any Jewish “schtetls” in Germany as they were common in Eastern Europe.
Jewish businesses were in fact so much indistinguishable from “normal German” ones that the SA hat do mark them with big painted stars of David and the word “Jude” (German for Jew). And the Jews themselves had to wear the yellow star of David, otherwise they wouldn’t be recognizable as “different”.
For the most part Jews were just normal Germans that went to different churches, on Saturday instead of Sunday.
Thank you for this new insight. You learn something new every day!
Also, @Billy here:
In the name of my fellow Germans: Go fuck yourself!
@keppie
So, why is Europe so secular now, if 500 years ago they were killing each other for religion?. Or why do we now have internet, if 1500 years ago we didn't have even literacy extended to the whole population?. You know, following your logic, all that should be true.
If this guy can speak German, who doesn't, I asure you, he is a big liar. Germans consider Adolf Hitler the worst thing that ever happened to them. And let's be honest, antisemitism in Europe in the pre war time was very wide spread, not just in Germany. Hitler just was stupid enough to take it to the extreme and, therefore, guaranteeing that nobody would be antisemitic again.
Dude actually has a point. Of course they won't ever call it antisemitism and instead go like "Am I not allowed to say that [insert ressentimented accusation against Israel]! I'm not an antisemite, but... [insert next ressentimented accusation]!" Germans will never forgive Israel for the Shoah. You can believe me, I've grown up among them.
You many decades behind your times. Actually, anti-Semitism falls under "Volksverhetzung" ("incitement of popular hatred", punishable with up to five years in prison). We learned from this greatest mistake we ever made.
And to be pendantic, Luther (and medieval progromes) were anti-Judaistic, not anti-Semitic, that is, they hated the Jewish religion, but not "the Jewish Race"; if they converted, they were saved. Anti-Semitism sensu strictu (Jews as a race of subhumans) was an invention of the 19th century, when religion was steadily using influence, so you had find a "scientific" rationalisation for pogroms.
Onechordbassist:
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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